"There She Goes" is a record released by Jerry Wallace. Its provence is unknown, although I estimate it was released in 1955, give or take seven years. It is a type of popular music that is neither jazzy nor country, and far away from anything we would call rock. It is hard to place this song in my standard music history.

My lack of research of these 45s is not due to laziness on my part. My reasoning is that most of the music we listen to has been filtered through so many years of music journalism and subcultural cachet, that most of what we think about is the parasocial relationships we have established with musical stars. So what happens when I listen to something free of that history? Someone I know nothing about.

And so we have this song. A romantic ballad about loss. There she goes, away with another man, because the singer cheated. Heartbreak in verse chorus verse format with a bass player who at least knows what he is doing, even though everything else just croons too much. And I don't believe a word of it. Maybe it is because the names of the writers on the label are not the name of the singer---but then, plenty of singers have made a personal connection with songs they didn't write. And therefore, make a personal connection with the listener.

But what am I listening to here? Except for the bass player, I don't believe any of it. And this is where all the lenses we usually look at popular music are gone. Was Jerry Wallace an innovative and reclusive genius who lived alone? Was he bothered by a tragic life where he died young? Was he faithfully married to the same woman? Was he an idealistic pioneer? A cynical opportunist? I suspect he was what he appeared to be--- a talented singer in an era when pop music just happened to be very schmaltzy. But without the usual decades of gossip and analysis that even our minor rock and pop stars are bedecked with, I just don't know. And without that parasocial relationship with a musician, I am left looking at this song as just a formulaic ballad from a time when music allowed no rawness, and where the sad ballad is understood and singer and audience to be just a piece of entertainment.

And since this is 2021, immediately after submitting this, I am going to find out whether I was right or wrong.

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.